The present invention relates to a disk drive recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a disk drive recording apparatus having an actuator arm with dual magnetic heads.
Generally, a disk drive recording apparatus, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) using a disk as a recording medium, includes one head gimbals assembly (HGA) connected to an actuator arm. The actuator arm is driven by a voice coil motor to enable a magnetic head to write and read servo information and data to and from a surface of the disk. In reading and writing data, the seek time required to access a target position on the disk is always a major concern.
One way to reduce seek times is to utilize an actuator arm that is bifurcated to support a pair of spaced transducing heads. This type of configuration has been previously disclosed in U.S Pat. No. 5,343,347 issued to Gilovich. While Gilovich ""347 does recognize that the aforementioned configuration can be used to reduce seek times, the reference fails to disclose any specific details regarding how the configuration can be utilized to produce optimal results. Accordingly, the present invention has been contemplated to optimize the results achievable with this configuration.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved disk drive recording apparatus.
It is another object to provide a disk drive recording apparatus having an actuator arm with dual heads that optimizes performance results.
It is still another object to provide a disk drive recording apparatus capable of improving a seek time by utilizing two magnetic heads on a single surface of a disk.
It is yet another object to provide a head switching control method for seeking a target position on a disk surface by driving two magnetic heads on a single surface of a disk.
These and other objects can be achieved in accordance with the principles of the present invention a disk drive recording apparatus comprising an actuator arm with first and second heads extending from the actuator arm for writing and reading data to and from a first surface of a disk recording medium. The first and second heads are spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction along a single radius of the first surface of the disk recording medium. A switching device switches a data input/output path between the first head and the second head in response to a control signal. A microprocessor identifies a target position on the first surface of the disk recording medium and determines which one of the first and second heads is closer to the target position. The microprocessor then generates the control signal to switch the data input/output path to the first head when the first head is closer to the target position, and generates the control signal to switch the data input/output path to the second head when the second head is closer to the target position. The disk recording medium is preferably divided into three equally spaced intervals in the circumferential direction, and the first head is spaced apart from the second head by one of these equally spaced intervals.